1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a vehicle occupant knee protection apparatus for protecting the knees of an occupant upon a collision of the vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-062531 describes a vehicle knee bolster structure in which the lower rear ends of left and right upper panel members (upper brackets), which are paired, and the lower rear ends of left and right lower panel members (lower brackets), which are paired, are overlapped and welded to each other. The upper front ends of the respective upper and lower panel members are separately welded to an instrument panel reinforcement, which is a pipe member, and a sheet metal panel (knee panel) is welded to lower panel portions of the respective upper panel members. Further, multiple bend portions and notches are provided at an upper panel portion of each upper panel member. According to this structure, as the knees of an occupant hit against the knee bolster, the upper panel portions of the respective upper panel members largely deform at the bend portions and notches, absorbing the impact load.
Achieving a high occupant knee protection performance of such a knee bolster structure (vehicle occupant knee protection apparatus) requires that the rear end sides of the respective upper panel members be positioned accurately as designed, with respect to the knees of the occupant. To this end, it is necessary to accurately attach (weld) the upper panel members to the instrument panel reinforcement, which is often a pipe member.
According to the knee bolster structure described above, however, both of the upper panel member (upper bracket) and the lower panel member (lower bracket), which are welded to each other, need to be welded to the instrument panel reinforcement that is a pipe member. Therefore, an error(s) in attaching the lower bracket to the instrument panel reinforcement, a dimensional error(s) of the lower bracket, and so on, affect the location of the rear end side of the upper bracket, and thus it is difficult to ensure a sufficient accuracy in attaching each upper bracket to the instrument panel reinforcement.